The annual Greening the Blue Report – The UN system’s environmental footprint and efforts to reduce it shows the progress both at the UN system-wide level and entity level of implementing the Strategy for Sustainability Management in the United Nations System 2020-2030, Phase I: Environmental Sustainability in the Area of Management (Sustainability Strategy I). The 2023 edition of the Greening the Blue Report, which provides 2022 data, was published on 21 December 2023. Commenting on the results from the report, António Guterres, UN Secretary-General noted, “The world must work together to address the triple planetary crisis of runaway climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution. We at the United Nations must do our part with advocacy and action. I encourage all UN entities to set an example by greening the blue.” Sustainability Strategy I covers both environmental impact areas and management functions. Highlights of the Greening the Blue Report 2023’s UN system-wide 2022 data results include: Environmental Impact Areas Greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) - the UN’s operations and facilities emitted 1.4 million tonnes of CO2eq in total or 4.6 tonnes CO2eq per capita. The UN system’s GHG emissions by source were 38% from air travel, 47% from facilities and 15% from other forms of travel Waste - the average waste generated for the whole UN system was 321 kg/person Water - the average water consumption by the UN system was 49 m3 per UN personnel per year Management Functions Environmental Governance – 7 UN entities have met or exceeded the criteria for implementing an Environmental Management System, with an additional 15 entities approaching the criteria Procurement* – 24 out of 29 organizations implemented formal sustainable procurement policies in their procurement processes Human Resources – 31 entities have environmental training available for their staff Greening the Blue Report 2023 highlights the environmental impacts of over 308,000 personnel in 57 entities across Headquarters, field offices and operations on the ground. The report also includes a case study from a UN entity on each of the environmental impact areas and management functions. To read the whole report and the detailed entity level data, please visit greeningtheblue.org. *Procurement data is taken from the 2022 Annual Statistical Report on United Nations Procurement. More information Methodologies and data collection used, please visit greeningtheblue.org/methodology. Methodology related to travel emissions provided by the International Civil Aviation Organisation please visit the ICAO website. For climate neutrality, please visit the UNFCCC website. For more information, please contact: UN Environment Programme E-mail: unepnewsdesk@unep.org
Sustainable construction in the UK is shifting from headline targets to measurable building lifecycle performance. Building-services bodies are urging government to treat housebuilding as an engineering, retrofit and delivery challenge, with low-carbon heating, skills capacity and energy-efficient buildings central to sustainable building design. Andy Burnham’s proposal to scrap gas standing charges could improve the economics of heat pumps and accelerate low carbon building upgrades, supporting net zero carbon buildings and wider decarbonising the built environment.
Climate resilience is becoming a core requirement of environmental sustainability in construction. Warnings from the Royal Meteorological Society on heat and cold extremes highlight the need for low carbon design that reduces peak energy demand, not buildings that intensify it. Drought alerts from water companies reinforce the case for sustainable building practices, resource efficiency in construction, water reuse, green infrastructure and climate-adapted landscapes within sustainable urban development.
This supports life cycle cost decisions, sustainable material specification, environmental product declarations (EPDs), low embodied carbon materials and low carbon construction materials. The strongest projects will apply life cycle thinking in construction, whole life carbon and net zero whole life carbon principles from concept stage.
The approval of the Jackdaw gas field exposes the policy tension facing green construction: cleaner buildings are being promoted while fossil-fuel infrastructure expands. Developers, contractors and clients seeking credible sustainable design, eco-design for buildings and eco-friendly construction will need to prioritise circular economy principles, circular economy in construction, embodied carbon in materials, end-of-life reuse in construction and circular construction strategies. Demand for BREEAM, BREEAM v7 alignment, renewable building materials, green building materials and green building products is likely to grow as regulation, finance and occupier expectations converge around net zero carbon, carbon footprint reduction and carbon neutral construction.
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